Public Interest Registry (PIR), the registry for .ORG domains, has announced the establishment of a new research organization, the DNS Abuse Institute. As the name implies, the institute will be engaged in conducting its own research and funding research into the illegal use (abuse) of the domain name system, such as malware, spam, botnets, phishing and pharming (redirecting internet users to another, fake site using malware). The new organization will also create tools to detect DNS abuse and will publish relevant materials on a regular basis that are expected to be in demand among registries and registrars.
According to Domain Name Wire, Graeme Bunton, a top manager of the major registrar Tucows, will be the institute’s director. The DNS Abuse Institute will hold its first conference on March 16, titled State of DNS Abuse: Trends from the last three years and current landscape.
“DNS abuse is currently one of the most pressing issues in providing cybersecurity. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ has been dealing with it for a long time, and our fight against abuse yields both theoretical and practical results. An institution of competent organizations created by the center has worked on detecting websites and pages that spread malware, spam and are engaged in phishing, etc. The close cooperation of these competent organizations with registrars helps to promptly respond to cases of DNS abuse and halt the activity of such resources. Other registries are joining this work: just two weeks ago, a memorandum of cooperation in counteracting the distribution of illicit information was signed with the Russian Institute of Public Networks (RIPN), the registry for .SU,” said Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev.
